Venezuela’s willingness to honor its debts is coming under fresh scrutiny even as the will-they-or-won’t-they jitters surrounding a $2.1 billion payment this week have largely subsided. The bonds from the state oil company maturing Wednesday traded as low as 94 cents on the dollar last week, showing a lack of confidence that Petroleos de Venezuela SA would come up with the needed cash, Bloomberg News reported. The securities shot up to 97 cents on Friday after PDVSA issued a statement saying it had already begun the payment process.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company should be stopped from plundering its U.S. subsidiary Citgo Holding Inc., according to court papers filed Monday evening by a creditor seeking $1.4 billion from the South American country. Canadian mining company Crystallex International Corp. asked a Delaware federal judge for an injunction blocking Petróleos de Venezuela SA—also known as PdVSA—from taking cash or transferring assets from Citgo, the U.S. crude refiner owned by PdVSA.

Accounting firm BDO declined to replace PriceWaterhouseCoopers in the in-court restructuring of Brazilian carrier Oi SA, BDO said in a statement on Friday. The judge overseeing the restructuring dropped PwC from the case on March 31 alleging the firm made accounting mistakes in the biggest bankruptcy filing in the country's history. In his decision, judge Fernando Cesar Viana appointed BDO to replace PwC. But BDO said in Friday's statement that it had decided not to take the task, despite keeping its work as Oi's auditor through 2019.

Odebrecht SA is rewarding some bondholders while others get burned, Bloomberg News reported. Notes issued by the holding company and backed by the construction arm plunged Wednesday after newspaper Valor Economico reported executives had told creditors that it will inevitably file for bankruptcy. The bonds are the worst performers in Brazil this year, losing more than a third of their value, as speculation mounted the scandal-tainted builder would struggle to meet its obligations.

The sell-off in dollar bonds issued by Venezuela and state-owned oil company PDVSA picked up steam on Tuesday as the spiraling crisis in the South American country triggered fresh fears of a default ahead of a multi-billion bond payment due next week, the Financial Times reported. The country’s benchmark 2027 bond fell 3 per cent to a 10-month low of 44.6 cents on the dollar. Bonds issued by PDVSA also took a leg lower, with the note due in 2035 down 2.7 per cent at 43.1 cents on the dollar.

Traders boosted their bets on a Venezuela default as state oil company known as PDVSA faces a $2 billion bond payment next week, Bloomberg News reported. The implied probability of nonpayment in the next 12 months surged to 56 percent in March from 40 percent in February, according to credit-default swaps data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Brazilian government is taking longer to finalize a decree that would allow it to intervene in debt-ridden Oi SA because it could impact other sectors beyond domestic phone carriers, an official familiar with the matter said on Monday, Reuters reported. Although the decree is aimed at phone and broadband service providers, the official said the legal change could also allow for intervention in other infrastructure sectors such as railways, highways and energy. "A legal change cannot be done only for the telecommunications sector.

Oi SA and one of its largest shareholders are pushing back against calls for a government takeover to usher the Brazilian phone company out of bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg News reported. Groups unhappy with the company’s restructuring plan are pressuring the government to intervene, even though the bankruptcy process is following its course and operations have been unaffected, said Nelson Tanure, the company’s second-largest shareholder.

Odebrecht Óleo & Gás SA, the offshore oil drilling company owned by Brazil's Odebrecht SA, has won temporary relief from investors despite pledging to honor interest payments on a bond a week after deadline, Reuters reported. In a Friday statement, the company known as OOG said investors would receive on April 7 an interest payment on the company's 6.75 percent global note due in October 2022 67576GAA5= that was due on March 1. OOG was making use of a so-called 30-day cure period expiring later on Friday to settle the payment.

The two biggest bondholder groups in Brazilian telephone operator Oi SA said on Friday they "strongly oppose" the terms of a new debt restructuring plan the company intends to present in bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. Claiming the proposed terms "were not previously negotiated with either of the Oi bondholder groups," the creditors said in a joint statement that Oi has "failed to engage" with them, nine months after filing for bankruptcy protection. Read more.